A New Broom by Witt Wittmann
A New Broom by Witt Wittmann I bought a new broom today and swept the cobwebs down, A thick accumulation of dregs, a mass of tangles and smut. I whisked a conglomeration of dust that forever stuck—inaccessible. Lifted the rug under which was hidden years of grime that Made traversing treacherous with things that trip […]
A Form Of Women by Robert Creely
A Form Of Women by Robert Creely I have come far enough from where I was not before to have seen the things looking in at me from through the open door and have walked tonight by myself to see the moonlight and see it as trees and shapes more fearful because I feared what […]
A Sonnet Occasioned by the Bad Weather Which Hindered the Sports at New-Market in January, 1616 by William Drummond
How cruelly these catives conspire! What loathsome love breeds such a baleful band Betwixt the cankred King of Creta land That melancholy, old and angry sire, And him, who wont to quench debate and ire Among the Romans when his ports were clos’d! But now his double face is still dispos’d, With Saturn’s help, to […]
A Little Te Deum Of The Commonplace by John Oxenham
_With hearts responsive And enfranchised eyes, We thank Thee, Lord,–_ For all things beautiful, and good, and true; For things that seemed not good yet turned to good; For all the sweet compulsions of Thy will That chased, and tried, and wrought us to Thy shape; For things unnumbered that we take of right, And […]
Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka
The price seemed reasonable, location Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived Off premises. Nothing remained But self-confession. “Madam” , I warned, “I hate a wasted journey – I am African.” Silence. Silenced transmission of pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came, Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully. “HOW DARK?”…I had not misheard….”ARE […]
I think it rains by Wole Soyinka
I think it rains That tongues may loosen from the parch Uncleave roof-tops of the mouth, hang Heavy with knowledge I saw it raise The sudden cloud, from ashes. Settling They joined in a ring of grey; within, The circling spirit. O it must rain These closures on the mind, blinding us In strange despairs, […]
Dedication From Moremi by Wole Soyinka
Earth will not share the rafter’s envy; dung floors Break, not the gecko’s slight skin, but its fall Taste this soil for death and plumb her deep for life As this yam, wholly earthed, yet a living tuber To the warmth of waters, earthed as springs As roots of baobab, as the hearth. The air […]
As Like The Woman As You Can by William Ernest Henley
‘As like the Woman as you can’ – (Thus the New Adam was beguiled) – ‘So shall you touch the Perfect Man’ – (God in the Garden heard and smiled). ‘Your father perished with his day: ‘A clot of passions fierce and blind, ‘He fought, he hacked, he crushed his way: ‘Your muscles, Child, must […]
A Thanksgiving by William Ernest Henley
From brief delights that rise to me Out of unfathomable dole, I thank whatever gods there be For mine unconquerable soul. In the strong clutch of Circumstance It has not winced, nor groaned aloud. Before the blows of eyeless chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. I front unfeared the threat of space And dwindle […]
At Queensferry by William Ernest Henley
The blackbird sang, the skies were clear and clean We bowled along a road that curved a spine Superbly sinuous and serpentine Thro’ silent symphonies of summer green. Sudden the Forth came on us–sad of mien, No cloud to colour it, no breeze to line: A sheet of dark, dull glass, without a sign Of […]
A New Song to an Old Tune by William Ernest Henley
SONS of Shannon, Tamar, Trent, Men of the Lothians, Men of Kent, Essex, Wessex, shore and shire, Mates of the net, the mine, the fire, Lads of the wheel and desk and loom, Noble and trader, squire and groom, Come where the bugles of England play, “Over the hills and far away!” Southern Cross and […]
A Love By The Sea by William Ernest Henley
Out of the starless night that covers me, (O tribulation of the wind that rolls!) Black as the cloud of some tremendous spell, The susurration of the sighing sea Sounds like the sobbing whisper of two souls That tremble in a passion of farewell. To the desires that trebled life in me, (O melancholy of […]
A Late Lark Twitters From The Quiet Skies by William Ernest Henley
the quiet skies: And from the west, Where the sun, his day’s work ended, Lingers as in content, There falls on the old, gray city An influence luminous and serene, A shining peace. The smoke ascends In a rosy-and-golden haze. The spires Shine and are changed. In the valley Shadows rise. The lark sings on. […]
A Dainty Thing’s The Villanelle by William Ernest Henley
A DAINTY thing’s the Villanelle, Sly, musical, a jewel in rhyme, It serves its purpose passing well. A double-clappered silver bell That must be made to clink in chime, A dainty thing’s the Villanelle; And if you wish to flute a spell, Or ask a meeting ‘neath the lime, It serves its purpose passing well. […]
Blithe Dreams Arise To Greet Us by William Ernest Henley
Blithe dreams arise to greet us, And life feels clean and new, For the old love comes to meet us In the dawning and the dew. O’erblown with sunny shadows, O’ersped with winds at play, The woodlands and the meadows Are keeping holiday. Wild foals are scampering, neighing, Brave merles their hautboys blow: Come! let […]
Beside The Idle Summer Sea by William Ernest Henley
Beside the idle summer sea, And in the vacant summer days, Light Love came fluting down the ways, Where you were loitering with me. Who have not welcomed even as we, That jocund minstrel and his lays Beside the idle summer sea And in the vacant summer days? We listened, we were fancy-free; And lo! […]
Ballade Of Youth And Age by William Ernest Henley
Spring at her height on a morn at prime, Sails that laugh from a flying squall, Pomp of harmony, rapture of rhyme – Youth is the sign of them, one and all. Winter sunsets and leaves that fall, An empty flagon, a folded page, A tumble-down wheel, a tattered ball – These are a type […]
Ballade Of Truisms by William Ernest Henley
Gold or silver, every day, Dies to gray. There are knots in every skein. Hours of work and hours of play Fade away Into one immense Inane. Shadow and substance, chaff and grain, Are as vain As the foam or as the spray. Life goes crooning, faint and fain, One refrain: ‘If it could be […]
Ballade Of A Toyokuni Colour-Print by William Ernest Henley
Was I a Samurai renowned, Two-sworded, fierce, immense of bow? A histrion angular and profound? A priest? a porter?–Child, although I have forgotten clean, I know That in the shade of Fujisan, What time the cherry-orchards blow, I loved you once in old Japan. As here you loiter, flowing-gowned And hugely sashed, with pins a-row […]
Ballade Of Midsummer Days And Nights by William Ernest Henley
With a ripple of leaves and a tinkle of streams The full world rolls in a rhythm of praise, And the winds are one with the clouds and beams – Midsummer days! Midsummer days! The dusk grows vast; in a purple haze, While the West from a rapture of sunset rights, Faint stars their exquisite […]
Ballade Made In The Hot Weather by William Ernest Henley
Fountains that frisk and sprinkle The moss they overspill; Pools that the breezes crinkle; The wheel beside the mill, With its wet, weedy frill; Wind-shadows in the wheat; A water-cart in the street; The fringe of foam that girds An islet’s ferneries; A green sky’s minor thirds – To live, I think of these! Of […]
Back-View by William Ernest Henley
I watched you saunter down the sand: Serene and large, the golden weather Flowed radiant round your peacock feather, And glistered from your jewelled hand. Your tawny hair, turned strand on strand And bound with blue ribands together, Streaked the rough tartan, green like heather, That round your lissome shoulder spanned. Your grace was quick […]
Attadale, West Highlands by William Ernest Henley
A black and glassy float, opaque and still, The loch, at furthest ebb supine in sleep, Reversing, mirrored in its luminous deep The calm grey skies; the solemn spurs of hill; Heather, and corn, and wisps of loitering haze; The wee white cots, black-hatted, plumed with smoke; The braes beyond–and when the ripple awoke, They […]
Arabian Night’s Entertainments by William Ernest Henley
Once on a time There was a little boy: a master-mage By virtue of a Book Of magic–O, so magical it filled His life with visionary pomps Processional! And Powers Passed with him where he passed. And Thrones And Dominations, glaived and plumed and mailed, Thronged in the criss-cross streets, The palaces pell-mell with playing-fields, […]
Apparition by William Ernest Henley
Thin-legged, thin-chested, slight unspeakably, Neat-footed and weak-fingered: in his face – Lean, large-boned, curved of beak, and touched with race, Bold-lipped, rich-tinted, mutable as the sea, The brown eyes radiant with vivacity – There shines a brilliant and romantic grace, A spirit intense and rare, with trace on trace Of passion and impudence and energy. […]
Anterotics by William Ernest Henley
Laughs the happy April morn Thro’ my grimy, little window, And a shaft of sunshine pushes Thro’ the shadows in the square. Dogs are tracing thro’ the grass, Crows are cawing round the chimneys, In and out among the washing Goes the West at hide-and-seek. Loud and cheerful clangs the bell. Here the nurses troop […]
Andante Con Moto by William Ernest Henley
Forth from the dust and din, The crush, the heat, the many-spotted glare, The odour and sense of life and lust aflare, The wrangle and jangle of unrests, Let us take horse, Dear Heart, take horse and win – As from swart August to the green lap of May – To quietness and the fresh […]
Allegro Maestoso by William Ernest Henley
Spring winds that blow As over leagues of myrtle-blooms and may; Bevies of spring clouds trooping slow, Like matrons heavy bosomed and aglow With the mild and placid pride of increase! Nay, What makes this insolent and comely stream Of appetence, this freshet of desire (Milk from the wild breasts of the wilful Day!), Down […]
After by William Ernest Henley
Like as a flamelet blanketed in smoke, So through the anaesthetic shows my life; So flashes and so fades my thought, at strife With the strong stupor that I heave and choke And sicken at, it is so foully sweet. Faces look strange from space-and disappear. Far voices, sudden loud, offend my ear – And […]
A Wink From Hesper by William Ernest Henley
A wink from Hesper, falling Fast in the wintry sky, Comes through the even blue, Dear, like a word from you… Is it good-bye? Across the miles between us I send you sigh for sigh. Good-Night, sweet friend, good-night: Till life and all take flight, Never good-bye. ————— The End And that’s the End of […]
A Desolate Shore by William Ernest Henley
A desolate shore, The sinister seduction of the Moon, The menace of the irreclaimable Sea. Flaunting, tawdry and grim, From cloud to cloud along her beat, Leering her battered and inveterate leer, She signals where he prowls in the dark alone, Her horrible old man, Mumbling old oaths and warming His villainous old bones with […]
A Child by William Ernest Henley
A child, Curious and innocent, Slips from his Nurse, and rejoicing Loses himself in the Fair. Thro’ the jostle and din Wandering, he revels, Dreaming, desiring, possessing; Till, of a sudden Tired and afraid, he beholds The sordid assemblage Just as it is; and he runs With a sob to his Nurse (Lighting at last […]
A Bowl Of Roses by William Ernest Henley
It was a bowl of roses: There in the light they lay, Languishing, glorying, glowing Their life away. And the soul of them rose like a presence, Into me crept and grew, And filled me with something-some one- O, was it you ? ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, […]
The Swamp Fox by William Gilmore Simms
WE follow where the Swamp Fox guides, His friends and merry men are we; And when the troop of Tarleton rides, We burrow in the cypress tree. The turfy hammock is our bed, Our home is in the red deer’s den, Our roof, the tree-top overhead, For we are wild and hunted men. We fly […]
The Lost Pleiad by William Gilmore Simms
NOT in the sky, Where it was seen So long in eminence of light serene,— Nor on the white tops of the glistering wave, Nor down in mansions of the hidden deep, Though beautiful in green And crystal, its great caves of mystery,— Shall the bright watcher have Her place, and, as of old, high […]
The Decay Of A People by William Gilmore Simms
THIS the true sign of ruin to a race— It undertakes no march, and day by day Drowses in camp, or, with the laggard’s pace, Walks sentry o’er possessions that decay; Destined, with sensible waste, to fleet away;— For the first secret of continued power Is the continued conquest;—all our sway Hath surety in the […]
The Bard by William Gilmore Simms
Where dwells the spirit of the Bard–what sky Persuades his daring wing,– Folded in soft carnation, or in snow Still sleeping, far o’er summits of the cloud, And, with a seeming, sweet unconsciousness, Wooing his plume, through baffling storms to fly, Assured of all that ever yet might bless The spirit, by love and loftiest […]
The Angel Of The Church by William Gilmore Simms
I. Aye, strike with sacrilegious aim The temple of the living God; Hurl iron bolt and seething flame Through aisles which holiest feet have trod; Tear up the altar, spoil the tomb, And, raging with demoniac ire, Send down, in sudden crash of doom, That grand, old, sky-sustaining spire. II. That spire, for full a […]
Sumter In Ruins by William Gilmore Simms
I. Ye batter down the lion’s den, But yet the lordly beast g’oes free; And ye shall hear his roar again, From mountain height, from lowland glen, From sandy shore and reedy fen– Where’er a band of freeborn men Rears sacred shrines to liberty. II. The serpent scales the eagle’s nest, And yet the royal […]
Song In March by William Gilmore Simms
NOW are the winds about us in their glee, Tossing the slender tree; Whirling the sands about his furious car, March cometh from afar; Breaks the sealed magic of old Winter’s dreams, And rends his glassy streams; Chafing with potent airs, he fiercely takes Their fetters from the lakes, And, with a power by queenly […]